Agape, SIS to represent CNMI in Mathleague

From left, Public School System teacher representative Paul Miura, CNMI Mathcourt champion Claire Song of Agape Christian School, Su Rui Huang of Saipan International School, former CNMI State teacher of the year Dora Miura, Enjie Hu of ACS, Dave Jang of SIS, Myungjae Cho of SIS, and Chen Xi Zhao of ACS. ACS coach Frederick Guintu and SIS coach Kacey Deatrich are posing with the CNMI team in the front row. (Contributed Photo)

The top six winners of the CNMI Mathcourt competition would go on to represent the CNMI in the 2017 Mathleague competition high school category in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

The CNMI Mathcourt competition was attended by both public and private high schools, but was dominated by Agape Christian School and Saipan International School students.

Mathcourt champion Claire Song would be accompanied by her fellow ACS students 3rd placer Chen Xi Zhao and 5th placer Enjie Hu in Iowa to represent the CNMI.

Also representing the CNMI would be SIS’ 2nd placer Myungjae Cho, 4th placer Su Rui Huang, and 6th placer Daniel Jang.

All of the members mentioned have represented the CNMI last year, except for Huang.

The CNMI Mathleague Team would be coached by Manny Borja and would be chaperoned by Frederick Guintu of ACS and Kacey Deatrich of SIS.

According to Song, who also serves as the leader of the group, the ACS’ side of the team is weak when it comes to trigonometry.

“For most of us, [we stumble] more on trigonometry. We all have our specific advantages when it comes to math, but I think we need to know each other more so that when we do our team events, we can assign different questions to members of our team,” she said.

Song was able to achieve third place in last year’s Mathcourt competition.

“I believe our math skills have improved a lot since last year. I believe we can get a better score than [students] in the mainland,” she said.

“I am very proud of them because their hard work is paying off—they practice everyday,” said ACS Mathcourt coach Frederick Guintu.

SIS’ David Jang believes the team is at an advantage compared to others because the team was similar to last year’s CNMI representatives. He said the team is solid as his teammates compliment one another very well.

“Last year when I went [to compete in Mathleague], I already met the three [from ACS], so I already know them. There is no problem,” he said.

“I believe my team can fill in my weaknesses,” said Jang, after confessing that he and 2nd placer Myungjae Cho are rather careless when it comes to basic computations.

Mathleague training starts this April 22 at the Mount Carmel School for three consecutive weeks. According to Guintu contestants will head to Iowa on May 18.